Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
High Demand But Low Wages: How Workers Who Care For Aging Patients Struggle
The Wall Street Journal: Caregivers Do Double Duty To Make Ends Meet
Demand for these workers, who provide the majority of hands-on non-medical care to older adults, is strong now and for the foreseeable future because of the aging baby-boom generation, longer life expectancies and growing rates of chronic conditions. In the next decade, home-care work is expected to add more jobs than any other occupation, with an additional 1.2 million needed by 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ... Yet even with high demand and tight supply, wages remain stubbornly low. Between 2007 and 2017, inflation-adjusted median hourly wages for direct-care workers—including home-health aides, personal-care aides and nursing assistants—fell 2% to $11.83 from $12.08, according to PHI, an organization that works with the direct-care industry. A 40-hour work week at that rate yields an annual income of around $24,600. (Ansberry, 10/27)
And in news about nursing homes —
The Associated Press: Maryland Settles With Nursing Homes That Discharged Patients
The state of Maryland on Thursday announced a $2.2 million settlement in its suit against the owners of Neiswanger Management Services, a nursing home company that routinely discharged patients when their Medicare coverage ran out and they had no income for further care. Capital News Service ran a series in September 2016, called “Discharging Trouble ,” that shared the stories of several patients who, at the end of their coverage, had been left at the doorstep of unlicensed assisted living homes where they alleged they were assaulted and robbed. (Williams and Dubose, 10/26)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Quality Of Care Can Be Affected As Nursing Homes Struggle To Maintain Workers
But a deficit of trained and available staff, especially licensed nursing assistants who provide most of the direct care to patients, is increasingly becoming a problem for New Hampshire’s nursing homes — not just Bedford Hills Center, where the dining room was closed four nights a week during the summer because of a lack of staff. Statewide, nursing homes struggle to maintain enough workers to provide sufficient care while earning enough to stay solvent, according to health care advocates. (Baker, 10/29)
